#2 — Back To The Torah, Back To The Beginning
In his Mishneh Torah the Rambam also quotes Numbers 24 as a prophecy about the Messiah [1]:
A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel…
This quote from the Torah is part of the oracles of Balaam. Balaam is compelled to utter a prophecy about a victorious king who will crush Israel’s enemies. Also Targum Onkelos identifies this king as the Messiah.
The expectation of this king is not an afterthought of the Torah; this king is the Torah’s ultimate hope. And since this king is the hope of the Torah, he is also the hope of the prophets.
Not only will this king be victorious over Israel’s enemies, through him there is also the expectation of ultimate blessing for Israel. Balaam wants to curse Israel but he cannot. G-d’s purpose is to bless Israel.
This is what Balaam has to prophesy about G-d’s purpose: “HASHEM their G-d is with them and the shout of a king is among them” (Numbers 23:21). Israel’s dwelling places will ultimately be “like gardens beside a river, like aloes that HASHEM has planted” (Numbers 24:6).
This sounds like the Garden of Eden. Balaam has to prophesy this in connection with Israel’s coming king: Israel’s “king shall be greater than Agag [2], and his kingdom shall be exalted” (Numbers 24:7).
We see the beauty of this diamond of hope even better if we hold it against the black background which the Torah itself provides for it.
The Torah is more than a law book. The Torah also tells us the sad story of Israel’s propensity to rebel. The Torah actually predicts Israel will not keep the covenant. Instead Israel will turn away from G-d (see e.g., Deuteronomy 31:26-29). The Torah prophesies Israel will end up under the curse of exile (Deuteronomy 29:24-28).
We have to keep this black background in mind. It makes this promise of blessing which is bound up with this special king an extremely precious diamond of hope. It makes the Torah a book of hope.
Balaam’s oracles are not the only prophecies about the messianic king in the Torah. Jacob also prophesied about him: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Genesis 49:10).
This prophecy of Jacob is the top of a family tree whose roots are traced all through the Book of Genesis. The lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is promised to produce the ultimate descendant who will command obedience of all peoples.
As the Book of Genesis traces this family lineage it also tells of G-d’s promises of blessing. Through the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).
This family tree, which is the backbone of the Book of Genesis, has deep roots—all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
When everything seems to have gone wrong in this garden; when it seems the serpent has managed to drive a wedge between G-d and man; when the serpent [3] instigated rebellious transgression against G-d’s command; when sin, death and curse enter the world…G-d gave a promise.
There will be a special seed, a descendant of the woman who will defeat this evil power. G-d said to the serpent: “He, he will crush your head” (Genesis 3:15).
The Book of Genesis purposefully traces this lineage from Eve all the way to Judah, from whom the special king will come from. The Book of Genesis makes it clear this special king will give the lethal blow to the evil power that derailed G-d’s good creation.
This special king, the Messiah, plays the key role in G-d’s plan of restoring his creation. He is the hope of the Torah from the very beginning.
Seeing more clearly how central the hope of the Messiah is, let us continue to explore the deep background of the topics upon which the Rambam touches.
[1] The Rambam quotes Numbers 24:17-18. In each verse he applies one half of the parallelism to King David and the other half to the Messianic King. Since that is not the way parallelism usually works in Hebrew poetic texts, it is probably better to apply everything in these verses to the Messianic king.
[2] The original text read probably “Gog” instead of “Agag”, as this is that we have in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. Compare also Ezekiel 38:17-18.
[3] This serpent is clearly more than a mere snake. What normal snake can do these things?
[4] Translated literally from the Hebrew. The Hebrew says with emphasis “he”